| It is necessary in the study of Karma-Yoga to know | | | | conscience. But what is it that makes an act a duty? If |
| what duty is. If I have to do something I must first | | | | a Christian finds a piece of beef before him and does |
| know that it is my duty, and then I can do it. The idea | | | | not eat it to save his own life, or will not give it to save |
| of duty again is different in different nations. The | | | | the life of another man, he is sure to feel that he has |
| Mohammedan says what is written in his book, the | | | | not done his duty. |
| Koran, is his duty; the Hindu says what is in the Vedas | | | | But if a Hindu dares to eat that piece of beef or to |
| is his duty; and the Christian says what is in the Bible is | | | | give it to another Hindu, he is equally sure to feel that |
| his duty. We find that there are varied ideas of duty, | | | | he too has not done his duty; the Hindu's training and |
| differing according to different states in life, different | | | | education make him feel that way. In the last century |
| historical periods and different nations. The term "duty", | | | | there were notorious bands of robbers in India called |
| like every other universal abstract term, is impossible | | | | thugs; they thought it their duty to kill any man they |
| clearly to define; we can only get an idea of it by | | | | could and take away his money; the larger the number |
| knowing its practical operations and results. | | | | of men they killed, the better they thought they were. |
| When certain things occur before us, we have all a | | | | Ordinarily if a man goes out into the street and shoots |
| natural or trained impulse to act in a certain manner | | | | down another man, he is apt to feel sorry for it, thinking |
| towards them; when this impulse comes, the mind | | | | that he has done wrong. But if the very same man, as |
| begins to think about the situation. Sometimes it thinks | | | | a soldier in his regiment, kills not one but twenty, he is |
| that it is good to act in a particular manner under the | | | | certain to feel glad and think that he has done his duty |
| given conditions; at other times it thinks that it is wrong | | | | remarkable well. Therefore we see that it is not the |
| to act in the same manner even in the very same | | | | thing done that defines a duty. To give an objective |
| circumstances. The ordinary idea of duty everywhere | | | | definition of duty is thus entirely impossible. Yet there is |
| is that every good man follows the dictates of his | | | | duty from the subjective side. |